- J Webster The White Devil Act V, Scene VI, Lines 300–301 (1612).
- A Jeffery The Truth About The Truth Commission (1999) 11.
- In Argentina, prosecutions were eventually dropped in favour of a blanket amnesty.
- Hereafter referred to as ‘the TRC’ or ‘the Commission’.
- N Ndebele ‘The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ (1998) 3 Siyaya 16.
- See especially L Berat & Y Shain ‘Retribution or Truth Telling in South Africa?’ 1995 L and Social Inquiry 20 for an exposition of this view.
- De Lange in C Villa Vicencio & W Verwoerd (eds) Looking Back Reaching Forward (2000) 20.
- The armed wing of the ANC.
- D Tutu No Future Without Forgiveness (1999) 120.
- Berat & Shain (note 6 above) conclude that ‘the South African case seems to support the view that transitions to democracy have more to do with delicate political crafting, however incongruent with the principles of justice, than with moral idealism’ (emphasis added).
- See E Kiss ‘Moral Ambition Within and Beyond Political Constraints’ in R Rotberg & D Thompson (eds) Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions (2000) 68–98, Tutu (note 9 above), and A Boraine A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2000) for detailed expositions of this view, as well as enthusiastic defences of ‘restorative justice’ — TRC style.
- J Hampton ‘The Retributive Idea’ in J Hampton & J Murphy Forgiveness and Mercy (1994) 111–161.
- Ibid 138–143.
- Ibid 143.
- J Butler Sermon VII ‘Upon Resentment’ and Sermon IX ‘Upon the Forgiveness of Injuries’ in Fifteen Sermons (1726). In the following discussions of forgiveness and mercy, I draw on some of the ideas contained in Murphy's excellent essays on the two concepts in Hampton & Murphy (note 12 above).
- Aristotle The Nicomachean Ethics Book IV, Section V.
- J Murphy ‘Forgiveness and Resentment’ in Hampton & Murphy (note 12 above) 26.
- A Kolnai ‘Forgiveness’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (1974) 74.
- J Murphy ‘Forgiveness and Mercy’ in EJ Craig (ed) Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (1998) 698.
- M Nussbaum ‘Equity and Mercy’ (1993) 22 Philosophy and Public Affairs 100.
- The Sowetan (15 April 1996) quoted in Rotberg & Thompson (note 11 above) 22.
- The very first entry on the TRC's Register of Reconciliation reads: ‘I am an Afrikaner who has been grossly misled by my peers of the time. I was led to believe that all was well both in the Christian and worldly sense. I now realise that this was not so and will do all in my power to make amends for the wrongs of the past and ensure that those who follow me will be exposed differently. Therefore they will act differently as I and my family shall now do’ (www.truth.org.za/ror/page01.htm).
- S Cohen ‘State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability and the Policing of the Past’ (1995) 20 L and Social Inquiry 11.
- Cf Cohen ibid 11.
- M Minow Between Vengeance and Forgiveness (1998) 9.
- D Tutu et al TRC Final Report (1999) Volume One, Chapter One, para 36.
- Kiss (note 11 above) 70.
- J Zalaquett ‘The Healing of a Nation?’ in A Boraine & J Levy (eds) Dealing with the Past: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa (1997) 46.
- W Soyinka The Burden of Memory, The Muse of Forgiveness (1999).
- Tutu (note 9 above) 36. At several points during Chapter Three of his book, Tutu seems to equate retribution with revenge, asking at one point what it was that made South Africa ‘forgive rather than… demand retribution,… be so magnanimous rather than wreaking vengeance?’ (ibid 34).
- I am grateful to Stephen Kirkwood for pointing this out to me.
- Boraine (note 11 above) 356.
- R Wilson The Polities of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State (2001) 120.
- Quoted in M Meredith Coming to Terms: South Africa's Search for Truth (1999) 84.
- Ibid 85.
- See the TRC's website (www.truth.org.za/decisions/1999/99benzien.html).
- For a wealth of detailed individual case studies on victim's encounters with the TRC, which largely support the view that the TRC's version of restorative justice has at best only been partially satisfactory for victims, the reader is advised to consult Wilson (note 33 above).
- Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Survivors' Perceptions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Suggestions for the Final Report (1998), available at www.csvr.org.za/papers/papkhul.htm.
- Ibid.
- H Zehr Changing Lenses: a New Focus for Crime and Justice (1990); L Zedner ‘Reparation and Retribution: Are They Reconciable?’ 1994 (57) Modern LR 228.
- Zehr (note 40 above) 26.
- Ibid.
- Ibid 180.
- W Shakespeare Othello, the Moor of Venice Act V Scene II, 304–305.
- Berat & Shain (note 6 above) 183.
- M Burton in Boraine & Levy (note 28 above) 122.
- B Williams Problems of the Self (1976) 174.
- R Hursthouse On Virtue Ethics (1999) 44–45.
- The amounts represent a calculation based on median annual household expenditure in South Africa.
- Sapa Truth Commission Unveils Reparations Policy (23 October 1997).
- D Shea The South African Truth Commission: the Politics of Reconciliation (2000) 34.
- Gobodo-Madikizela ‘Government Position Strips Apartheid Victims of Dignity’ Daily Mail and Guardian (22 November 2000).
- D Tutu et al (note 26 above) Volume 5, Section 8, para 14.
- See Shea (note 51 above) 41.
- Cf C Wolf quoted in S Linfield ‘Trading Truth for Justice?’ Boston Review (July 2000).
- ‘Out of the bungled, unwise war/an alp of unforgiveness grew’ W Plomer Collected Poems (1973) 25. Also quoted in Meredith (note 34 above) 311.
South African Journal on Human Rights
Volume 17, 2001 - Issue 4